93/KHJ Boss Radio: A Look Back

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comments:

A fun chart for me. By this time, I was full blown into listening to KHJ and buying singles. I was thrilled that "Hurdy Gurdy Man" was No. 1.

KHJ played Wayne Newton's version of "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife," even though Glen Campbell's got more national attention.

KHJ also played "It's Nice to Be With You" by the Monkees, even though the flip side, "D.W. Washburn," was a much bigger hit. This is something else I've noticed about the station -- how often it would go with the B sides instead of the more prominent national A sides. In 1966, it played "God Only Knows" over "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by the Beach Boys. In 1967, it played "Full Measure" instead of "Nashville Cats" by the Lovin' Spoonful. I wonder why this was. Did its market research indicate that the B sides were a better bet for Los Angeles? Did it get more requests for the B sides? Sometimes in a chart run, you'd see one side of the single get the initial push, and then as it was falling on the chart, the B side would start to pick up steam and it would go up again. I'm thinking of Buffalo Springfield's "Bluebird" and "Mr. Soul" and Dionne Warwick's "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" and "Let Me Be Lonely" and Aretha Franklin's "Since You've Been Gone" and "Ain't No Way" as examples.

"Pied Piper" by The Changin' Times and "Born Free" by Matt Monro are two more titles I recall KHJ playing even though the versions by Crispian St. Peters and Roger Williams were more popular nationally.

While I don't know how KHJ selected which songs to play, I'm sure glad they went with "Full Measure." I loved that song. "Mr. Soul" was another favorite.

I remember Monro's "Born Free" well, and I was shocked years later to learn that nationally it didn't even make the Hot 100. It Bubbled Under at like 106. Considering how popular it was in SoCal, I wonder why the instrumental version did better nationally.

And yes, I like "Full Measure" a lot, too. One of the few Lovin' Spoonful songs where John Sebastian didn't sing lead.

Other examples like this were "Fortunate Son" then "Down On The Corner" by CCR, "Something" then "Come Together" by the Beatles in 1969. "Laughing" then "Undun" by the Guess Who had completely separate runs altogether (also in 1969).